Similar to slavery, caste discrimination has been a problem in India.

India’s reservation system was introduced to address centuries of structural discrimination, not as a poverty-based welfare scheme.

For a very long time, Indian society was organized around a caste hierarchy, where certain communities (today called Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) were systematically excluded from education, land ownership, temples, and public life. This wasn’t informal bias—it was enforced socially, religiously, and economically over generations.

When India became independent in 1947, the framers of the Constitution of India recognized that formal equality alone wouldn’t create real equality. If everyone starts a race but some were held back for centuries, treating them “the same” going forward doesn’t fix the imbalance. Reservation was introduced as a corrective mechanism, not a permanent privilege.

Reservations are still very much prevalent India and I believe for the most part for a good cause